Laurie likes House, but he's nothing like him

Published 10:00 pm, Friday, January 20, 2006

Hugh Laurie of "House" rejects the sex-symbol label. "I'm playing a sexy character; I am not a sexy person," he says.

Hugh Laurie of "House" rejects the sex-symbol label. "I'm playing a sexy character; I am not a sexy person," he says.

Photo: MICHAEL LAVINE/FOX

Laurie likes House, but he's nothing like him

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Gregory House, M.D., is unpleasant, tactless and, when he smiles, it tends to be at a joke that comes at someone else's expense. He's everything that Hugh Laurie, the lovely star of the hit Fox series "House," is not.

Talking to Laurie, however, it becomes clear that the British actor deeply respects the role he occupies. That is no doubt the reason he walked home with a Golden Globe for best actor in a television drama this week.

We cornered him on the set of "House," which airs Tuesdays at 9 on Fox (KCPQ/13), on the day before he won, to ask him why the role is so attractive to viewers -- especially the ladies.

P-I: You do realize that because of your character, you're considered to be a sex symbol?

Why? Whenever "House" isn't on the air, I get flooded with calls from women asking where you've gone.

That's so odd. Aah. I'm so embarrassed. ... You know, it's a sexy character. I'm playing a sexy character; I am not a sexy person. The character, I can see, you know, the damaged genius, the sort of Byronic hero, I can see some attraction in that. But that would be true of whoever was playing the role. If Mickey Rooney was playing the role ...

I seriously doubt that.

Oh, I think so. It's about the role. It's certainly never happened to me before in my life, so that would seem to support my theory. It's the character, not me. That's fine. I can live with that.

What was your reaction to getting nominated for a Golden Globe?

I was astonished and completely shocked. The funny thing about it was that the first thing I thought I'd do was call my wife. Then I realized, no, wait a minute, I'm talking to my wife, because she called me. My wife called me with the news. And I still don't quite know how she found out before I did. She's in London. She called me at 6 o'clock in the morning and said, "You've been nominated for a Golden Globe." I said, "Well, how the hell did you know that?" She's connected, my wife.

Can you talk about the rigors of working in American network television?

It's just brutal. I played a character in England for four years straight. We did 24 shows over four years. That's considered a lot. I've done 40 shows here, now, in about 18 months. That's incredible. I never ... that's like 16 movies back-to-back. It's almost as if I've done all the Bond movies in one go. It's like 20 movies. It's incredible. I do not know how you guys do it. How these guys write those scripts, it's absolutely amazing to me.

Another reporter asked: What do you think we'll learn about House this season?

The problem that the writers face is that they must never answer the question, "What's up with House?" They can never give it away. As soon as that problem's solved, the show is over. So, in way, they have to give an illusion of movement, an illusion of revelation, that actually is only an illusion.

But I suppose the truth is, my feeling is the audience may have suspected that the conventional path of a character like this might be, "Well, he seems like a jerk and he seems like this, but actually underneath it, he's got a heart of gold."

I think the discovery in this season is that, I'm not sure he has got a heart of gold. He might do some of the time, but he's more complicated than that.

Will there ever be a day that Dr. House will reveal that soft spot, that chink in the armor?

The question is, whom does he reveal it to? The audience may be privy to those moments, but I think the thing about House is that he will go to great lengths not to reveal it to other people. One of the things that I, personally, most admire about House is that he's not in it for the applause. He doesn't care whether he does the good thing or the bad thing. He doesn't care what other people think of it. ... He doesn't care for either, and I find that really rather thrilling. I think so much of the time these days, people want their good deeds to be recognized. They want to be applauded for their good behavior. And House doesn't care about that.

He seems to be the misanthrope who doesn't want his patients to die.

If you die, he's failed. And he does not want to fail. He has that degree of arrogance. He will not give in to failure. And if you die or you suffer, it's because ... his skills were not sufficient. And that, I think, is unacceptable to him. So, in that sense, I think he is relentless. Relentlessly good, because his own arrogance, his own conceit, will always drive him to go further and further and further to keep his patients from death.

"ER" has gotten a lot of great guest stars. Now that "House" has gotten some recognition, do you have a wish list for guest stars on a par with Cynthia Nixon and others who have been on?

I do. I have to keep it to myself because I'll get into so much trouble if the actor who then finally gets the role then reads in a newspaper, "Oh, so he wanted Clint Eastwood? Oh. Sorry!" ...

But I will say that the second half of the season concentrates pretty heavily on just the regular cast. We had some great guest stars, and will continue to I'm sure -- Sela Ward gave a whole new sort of story arc to the thing -- but the second half is really about our characters, you know, the regular people. Which I think is great, because they're so good and the characters are so intricate. There's a huge amount of mileage to be had from them.